Lamentations 1:9
What does Lamentations 1:9 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 1:9 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 1:9 means
Jerusalem’s impurity clings to her very garments—shame and defilement are not superficial. She “remembered not her latter end,” living without regard to the consequences, and so her fall is astonishingly great. With no one to comfort, she appeals directly to Jehovah: “Behold my affliction,” for the enemy has grown arrogant. The verse unites confession and petition. She admits careless disregard for the future, then pleads for God to see and acknowledge her misery. The absence of human comforters drives her to seek divine attention. The proud triumph of the enemy becomes part of the appeal: that God would look upon the injustice and the humiliation that now blot the city’s name.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Her filthiness was in her skirts; she remembered not her latter end; Therefore is she come down wonderfully; she hath no comforter: Behold, O Jehovah, my affliction; for the enemy hath magnified himself.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Her filthiness was in her skirts; she remembered not her latter end; Therefore is she come down wonderfully; she hath no comforter: Behold, O Jehovah, my affliction; for the enemy hath magnified himself.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949In her skirts were her unclean ways; she gave no thought to her end; and her fall has been a wonder; she has no comforter: see her sorrow, O Lord; for the attacker is lifted up.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Her uncleanness <FI>is<Fi> in her skirts, She hath not remembered her latter end, And she cometh down wonderfully, There is no comforter for her. See, O Jehovah, mine affliction, For exerted himself hath an enemy.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Teth. Her filthiness is on her feet, and she hath not remembered her end; she is wonderfully cast down, not having a comforter: behold, O Lord, my affliction, because the enemy is lifted up.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Her impurity was in her skirts, she remembered not her latter end; and she came down wonderfully: she hath no comforter. Jehovah, behold my affliction; for the enemy hath magnified himself.
Context
After the frank admission of grievous sin (verse 8), verse 9 deepens the picture—uncleanness pervades, foresight failed, and the fall is extraordinary. The city now turns in prayer to Jehovah to behold her distress. This turn to supplication sets up the next grief: desecration of the sanctuary and loss of sacred treasures (verse 10), followed by the desperate hunger of the people (verse 11). The flow alternates between confession, description of sufferings, and cries for divine attention, building a comprehensive lament that acknowledges guilt while begging for God’s regard.
v.8Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is become as an unclean thing; All that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: Yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
v.9This passage
v.10The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: For she hath seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, Concerning whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thine assembly.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Jeremiah 48:26
Make ye him drunken; for he magnified himself against Jehovah: and Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
- Hosea 2:14
Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
- Isaiah 37:29
Because of thy raging against me, and because thine arrogancy is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
- 1 Peter 4:17
For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?
- Psalms 119:153
Consider mine affliction, and deliver me; For I do not forget thy law.
- Nehemiah 9:32
Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and lovingkindness, let not all the travail seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.
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